Blockchain applications in the agri-food sector: current insights, challenges and research avenues

Purpose With the growing entrepreneurial enthusiasm surrounding blockchain, there has been a notable surge in academic discussions regarding the business implications of integrating this technology into the agri-food industry. This trend is expected to persist and evolve in the future. Hence, there is a need to organize and consolidate the existing knowledge, discern prevailing trends and articulate a comprehensive roadmap for guiding future research endeavors in this domain. Design/methodology/approach We combine bibliometric network analyses with a detailed systematic review of the related management literature published between 2008 and 2022. Findings Our results indicate that debate has clustered around the operations management domain, with a dominance of practice-oriented topics. Most of the literature has been published in top-tier journals, with a recent opening toward empirical research and conceptualization efforts. Both signs show that scholars have acknowledged the prominence of the construct and started to theorize about it. Eventually, the analysis provides a conceptual map, unveils the trends emerging in the received studies and yields conclusions that are helpful to scholars engaging with digital tools in traditional industries. Originality/value Our approach blends quantitative analysis with a comprehensive and systematic overview, providing a complementary viewpoint on the topic.